Stranded
by sgtat
Summary: The new SG1 is trapped offworld, as the uncreative title suggests, at the mercy of a strange young woman they know nothing about...
1. Chapter 1

Title: Stranded  
Author: sgtat  
Category: General, Action/Adventure  
Rating: K+ to be safe.  
Season: Nine  
Related Episodes/Spoilers: None.  
Featured Characters: Each team member.  
Pairings: Team.  
Disclaimer: I have no ownership in the Stargate franchise. If I did, I would not be writing fanfiction.

Summary: The new SG-1 is trapped off-world, as the uncreative title suggests, at the mercy of a strange young woman they know nothing about...

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter squinted into the semi-darkness, trying to take in the dimly lit room her team had just gated into. After a quick scan, her gaze fell on the DHD out of habit. Present and accounted for and intact. She lowered her P-90 and turned her attention to the MALP off at the end of the room, resting near a pile of debris. It looked like there had been a firefight in this room years ago. Sam walked over to the MALP and squatted down to take a look. No sign of any exterior damage. She froned as she checked the machine more carefully. The MALP had been working fine. It had been transmitting data to the SGC on air quality, scanning the room, moving around, and then it had just stopped. It was still transmitting data, it could still be maneuvered. It could do everything. Everything except move into the hallway beyond. Sam glanced at the open hallway. She could feel a draught from the cold, gray passage, and the MALP hadn't picked up any energy readings so it couldn't be that a force field was blocking the way. Something must be wrong with the MALP, preventing it from operating out of a certain range of the Stargate, which was the only other way out of the room.

Sam unscrewed part of the machine's casing and started examining the intricate wires and circuits that made up its interior. She heard some rustling and twisted on her heels to see what it was. Her team was meandering about while she tinkered with the MALP, and Teal'c and Daniel were sifting through a pile of rubble. Sam glanced at the third member of her team - Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell - before getting back to work. He was a fine officer and had already handled some tough off-world situations, but he was still the new-bee and Sam couldn't help feeling a bit big-sister-ish as he sauntered toward her a few minutes later. He was trying so hard to fit in. To be the CO without disregarding Sam's perfect right to be in charge of the team. He'd even made a point of talking to her about it over coffee in her lab one evening after she'd agreed to rejoin SG-1. She'd told him not to worry about it; that she didn't mind. That it made sense to have only one leader of a four-man team, and that she fin with being his second. All true.

Not that she had to follow all his orders, per se, being of equal rank. But Sam would defer leadership to him and be his back up. She was comfortable following someone else's orders when she trusted them and knew she could make suggestions or even take a stand if she thought it necessary. She'd done it for seven years, after all. And from her experience leading the team last year she knew she had what it took to take charge when needed. She was a confident soldier, but it was nice not to be the one always making the decisions. Without that responsibility, she could give more attention to the science of their explorations instead of having to be the voice of the military. Sam could tell Cameron still felt a little under-qualified with her back on the team, and it was a bit strange to give way to a man with so much less off-world experience, but they were both adjusting pretty well to the situation. Their equal status as officers certainly made for an interesting dynamic, and in a few very small ways, his approach to some situations even reminded her a little of her former CO.

Mitchell reached her side and also stooped down by the MALP.

"So what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, as far as I can tell," Sam answered simply.

Mitchell gave her a skeptical glance. "Nothing?"

"Well, there's no discernable damage to the exterior, it functions normally and responds to all commands, there's nothing wrong with the circuits and all the diagnostics look good. There's nothing wrong with it," Sam finished at a loss.

"Except that it won't leave the room."

Sam allowed herself a quick glance at Cameron. Exhibit A of him seeming to channel Colonel - General - O'Neill. It was so weird when that happened.

Mitchell watched as Sam continued to tinker with the MALP. What was that, anyway? She kept giving him those keen looks and he couldn't figure out what they meant. Mitchell wondered if he'd ever get used to it - the quick, perceptive eyes boring into him at the oddest moments. He'd have to ask General O'Neill about it. Jackson, he was sure, wouldn't know what he was talking about and Teal'c just plain wouldn't tell him. O'Neill would, though. If there was anything that man would talk about at leisure, it was SG-1. Normally Mitchell would have waited to figure things out on his own, but he was playing catch-up here. Jackson, Teal'c and Sam had spent more than eight years together as SG-1, and Mitchell needed all the help he could get to figure them out. Nothing wrong with a little espionage . . .

Sam looked past the MALP into the hallway beyond and Mitchell followed her gaze. She started taking energy readings and he knew she was double-checking for the presence of a force field. He stood up and reached out a cautious hand. Force fields tended to pack quite a punch. He braced himself for the imminent shock and thrust his hand out into the air. His palm was stopped abruptly as it came into contact with a hard surface. It felt like a rough cement wall.

"Well that's funny," he commented needlessly.

Carter also put her hand out to explore the barrier, puzzled.

"Odd." Sam turned at Daniel's voice. He had wandered over to them and was peering over her shoulder.

"Is there no way to disrupt the barrier that we may advance beyond the perimeter of this room," Teal'c suggested more than asked.

"Let's find out," Mitchell replied. "Everyone look for control panels."

The team searched all the wall with no luck. Mitchell finally looked at his watch.

"Alright everyone, I think we've been here long enough. Let's go home. Jackson."

Sam took a last reading for energy signatures as Daniel walked briskly over to the DHD. He reached the device and hit the first symbol. Nothing happened. Frowning, he hit it again. Nothing. The symbol on the DHD didn't even light up, much less engage the Gate chevrons. He glanced at the others and pounded in all seven symbols and slapped the middle sphere. All four watched the Gate apprehensively. Nothing.

"Great," Mitchell drawled. Sam closed her eyes and groaned internally. She hated being stranded off-world. She walked to the DHD and Daniel moved aside to give her space to work as she began to examine the crystals inside it. Mitchell covered the hallway, now tense, and Teal'c looked suspiciously around the room. It only took Carter a minute to find what was wrong.

"Uh-oh."

Daniel knelt beside her. "What?"

"One of the control crystals is missing."

Mitchell left his post by the hallway. "Missing?"

Sam only nodded.

Mitchell looked around the room at the garbage and debris. "Then I guess we'd better hope it's here somewhere and start looking."

SG-1 scoured the rubble thoroughly. They found more evidence of the suspected firefight; skeletons still wearing bits of armor. They were Jaffa. The control crystal was no where to be seen. Mitchell wasn't very happy, but he liked to keep a positive demeanor.

"Well folks," he finally said, "I guess we might as well settle in for a little while. We're an hour overdue and the General will open the gate soon. He'll send through a power supply and we'll dial out manually." He looked around at his team. His team. He still wasn't used to that.

Teal'c was looking more impassive than usual, a sure sign of uneasiness. Jackson's brow was furrowed so tight he'd probably get a head ache. Sam looked vaguely tired. Not good signs but not bad ones, either. They'd been in similar situations before. It was always tough, though, even for SG-1.

"Let's take a break," he suggested loudly enough to make it an unofficial order. He was sure the others understood the tone but they didn't react like people he'd led in the past. Teal'c looked slowly around the room in an unsatisfied manner and remained watchful. Jackson's brow receded even more into its furrows and he continued to poke around. Sam stopped digging through rubble in one of the corners, but she walked over to the DHD and started tinkering with it.

Mitchell shook his head. His 'order' implied relaxation. It was never really possible in these situations, but most people would've tried harder or at least pretended. For his part, Mitchell leaned against the DHD, taking the opportunity to think of contingency plans in case manual dialing didn't work.

"Colonel Mitchell."

Mitchell and the rest of the team looked up at Teal'c. The huge Jaffa merely pointed behind them and they turned to see a young woman standing in the hallway on the other side of the barrier. She was dressed in clean but shabby clothes that looked too big for her, and Mitchell wondered at how quietly she'd approached them. Her face was almost expressionless and he frowned.

Daniel sprang into action.

"Hello," he said hopefully and waited for a response. None came. The girl looked at Daniel but otherwise made no sign that she had heard him speak.

"Um, my name is Daniel Jackson. This is Colonel Carter, Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c. We're peaceful explorers from a planet called earth."

Again, Daniel waited for a reaction and again none came. He started walking toward her.

"Jackson?" Mitchell put a little warning into his voice and fingered his P-90. He wasn't so sure that approaching a stranger while trapped in a room was a great idea.

Daniel Hesitated. Over the course of eight-plus years on SG-1, he'd learned to be cautious around unknown aliens. He'd become a competent soldier and had even let some of Jack's humor and sarcasm rub off on him. But he was still the scientist, still the diplomat. Besides, there was a wall separating them from the young woman, and they were all heavily armed. What could she do to them?

"It's all right, Colonel," he said without looking back. He stopped a few feet from the hallway barrier. "I'm Daniel Jackson," he said again. "Who are you?"

No response.

"Listen, um, we're kind of stuck here. Maybe you can help us. We can't get out of this room but we also can't get back home through the Stargate."

Daniel was hoping for some recognition of the word, but there was none. H decided to try a few alien variations of the dvice's name. "The, uh, 'Portal', the 'Great Ring', the 'Chappa'ai', the -"

The girl flinched and hit a panel on the wall. For SG-1, everything suddenly went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Stranded  
Author: sgtat  
Category: General, Action/Adventure  
Rating: K+ to be safe.  
Season: Nine  
Related Episodes/Spoilers: None.  
Featured Characters: Each team member.  
Pairings: Team.  
Disclaimer: I have no ownership in the Stargate franchise. If I did, I would not be writing fanfiction. 

Summary: The new SG-1 is trapped off-world, as the uncreative title suggests, at the mercy of a strange young woman they know nothing about...

Teal'c woke first. He had become accustomed to this over the years. His symbiote had often allowed him to wake long before his team when they had been rendered unconscious. He took longer to recover now, but he was still often the first. He stood and examined his surroundings. Daniel Jackson and Colonel Mitchell lay unconscious nearby, and Colonel Carter was not far off. Teal'c noted that while he, Daniel Jackson and Colonel Mitchell still wore their protective vests, Colonel Carter had been relieved of both her vest and jacket. All of their weapons had been removed, and their packs were nowhere to be seen. They were no longer in the room with the Stargate, but a much smaller one. The room was completely bare. Teal'c turned toward Colonel Carter, as experience had taught him that she sometimes awoke before the others, no doubt due to the Goa'uld protein marker in her blood. He was still several feet away, however, when he encountered resistance. He frowned, following the invisible barrier with his hand from one end of the room to the other. Samantha Carter was separated from the rest of them.

Teal'c heard someone stirring behind him and returned to his other teammates. Colonel Mitchell was waking up.

Mitchell sat up slowly. His head was pounding. He'd probably hit it when he'd blacked out. Blacked out . . . Oh, yeah. Scratch that - when he'd been knocked out. He looked up to find Teal'c looking down at him.

"Well that was fun," he said blandly, closing his eyes again and rubbing his sore head vigorously.

"Ohhh. What was that?"

Mitchell glanced over to see Daniel also sitting up and rubbing his head. The movement made Mitchell's head throb and he screwed his eyes shut again.

"We have been rendered unconscious, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c informed him unhelpfully.

"Really? I never would have guessed," Daniel shot back.

"How's Sam?" Mitchell asked without looking, still rubbing his head.

"Colonel Carter is in the neighboring room," Teal'c replied, pointing.

Daniel and Mitchell looked over to find Carter lying a few yards away.

"What do you mean, 'the next room'?" Daniel asked.

"She is separated from us by an invisible barrier like those we have previously encountered on this planet," Teal'c explained succinctly.

"Oh, great," Mitchell replied. He wasn't happy about being knocked out, he didn't like being locked, as it appeared that they were, and he hated being separated from a member of his team. He took a look around. No weapons. No packs. He felt his vest. No C-4. No radio. Every pocket was empty. Even the protective vest inserts specially designed to block blasts from energy weapons had been removed. Mitchell sighed and took a good look at the room. It was bare. Teal'c had stalked over to a doorway at the far end of the room, but he encountered another barrier just before reaching the door.

"Any of this familiar, Teal'c?" he asked on the off chance that something might ring a bell for the Jaffa.

"No."

Daniel's thoughts had already wandered back to the young woman they'd encountered. "I wonder why she did this to us," he mused aloud.

A fuzzy sound caught their attention and they all stopped to listen.

"SG-1, this is Stargate Command. Come in. Over." The voice was General Landry's.

"My radio's gone," Mitchell said nonplussed.

Daniel checked his vest. "So's mine."

"We read you, Stargate Command."

Daniel and Mitchell turned to Teal'c. The Jaffa still had his radio.

"Good," General Landry replied. "We've been trying to contact you for three hours. Where have you been?"

"We have been on P3X-062," was Teal'c's dead-pan reply. The radio went silent.

"Teal'c." Mitchell motioned for the radio. "General. Mitchell here. We have a little problem, sir. We're unable to dial out. The DHD here is intact, but it's missing a control crystal. The room the Stargate is in is cut off from the rest of the building by an invisible wall of some sort. And we can't get back there right now anyway because we're locked up in some room somewhere. Over."

The General's voice again came crackling over the radio. "Have you been taken prisoner, Colonel?"

"Yeah, I'd say so, sir. We ran into a young woman here. Tried communicating but she was unresponsive. They out of no where she hit some button or something and the next thing I know I'm waking up in this room."

"What's the status of your team, Colonel?"

"They're all here, sir. Colonel Carter is separated from us and not awake yet, but we can see her, sir. She appears to be fine. We are, however, sans weapons, a couple of radios and our packs, sir."

"Should we come get you, Colonel?"

Mitchell thought for a moment. "I'd wait on that for now, General. Unless we can figure out how to get these invisible walls down, anyone you send through won't be able to get to us. And they could be neutralized as well. Give us some time to work on it, sir."

"Very well, Colonel. We'll check back in three hours. SGC out."

"Yes sir," Mitchell replied. "SG-1 out." He looked at Daniel and Teal'c. "So how do we get out of here?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps the young woman will return, and we can attempt to communicate again."

"Yeah, for all the good it did us last time," Daniel replied. He sighed. "But maybe…she could just need a little time," he conceded.

Mitchell looked over at Sam. "Well, Sam's our best bet at figuring out these invisible walls. Let's see if she's ready to get up."

He carefully approached her, one arm stretched out before him until he found the wall separating them. He stooped down and tried to wake her without giving her a heart attack.

"Sam."

Sam didn't stir.

Mitchell raised his voice. "Hey! Sam! Time to get up!"

Nothing.

Daniel walked over to help. "Wake up, Sam!"

Still no response. Mitchell shared a look with Daniel. Something wasn't right.

"Sam?! Sam!! Get up!!"

Daniel's brow furrowed with worry. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"I don't know," Mitchell replied, "but I don't like it."

Teal'c had joined them now. He looked down at Colonel Carter and tried to think of innocuous reasons that she did not respond. "Perhaps Colonel Carter required more time to recover from the effects of being rendered unconscious."

Daniel glanced at his watch only to find it was no longer on his wrist. "She should wake up when we call her," he insisted.

"Carter!!!" Mitchell flat-out yelled. She didn't even twitch.

The three men turned as they heard a noise behind them, rather like a gust of wind. Except there was no wind. A moment later the young woman they had encountered earlier opened a door to the room and came in. She held a large tray and seemed unsurprised to find them awake.

Daniel approached her with what he hoped was a friendly expression on his face.

"Hello," he began, and ran into solid air. "Ow."

The young woman set the tray in front of Daniel on her side of the barrier. She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Daniel called. "Don't go! We'd like to talk to you."

The woman stopped and turned back to face Daniel, so he knew she could hear. Now to see if he could make her listen. He smiled disarmingly.

"We'd like to get to know you," he said. "We'd like to understand you. To understand your culture, your history, -"

"Why you've locked us up," Mitchell added helpfully.

Daniel was irked. Mitchell wasn't helping any more than Jack would have. He pushed the irritation aside and concentrated on the problem at hand.

"The point is, we'd like to talk to you." Daniel started small. "I'm Daniel Jackson. Daniel," he repeated, pointing to himself. He looked back at Mitchell and Teal'c, raising his eyebrows and gesturing to indicate that they should introduce themselves. Mitchell took the hint.

"I'm Colonel Cameron Mitchell."

"And I am Teal'c," the Jaffa stated gravely.

Daniel gestured to the still-unconscious Sam. "And that's Colonel Samantha Carter."

The woman's gaze lingered on Teal'c before moving on to Sam. Her face hardened as she regarded Sam and she abruptly turned and left the room.

"Wait!" Daniel called. "Come back!"

He heard the noise like wind again. On an inspiration, he reached out carefully. His hand met no resistance. "Moveable invisible walls," he stated quietly.

"Great," Mitchell replied. Now he could add that to his mental list of things that he didn't like about this situation. "Let's see what she brought us," he added, moving toward the tray.

Teal'c answered. "It appears to be food, Colonel Mitchell."

Mitchell's reply was cut short when he heard a low moan. All three men turned to Sam.

"Sam?" Daniel approached her quickly, finding the wall with his hand. "Sam?"

Carter opened her eyes. She turned her head a bit and promptly winced. She was going to need a good dose of painkiller for the headache.

"How're you feeling?" Daniel prodded.

Sam gave him a little smile. "Oh, you know…headache. Feels like I just -" Sam stopped in mid-sentence, the self-effacing smile vanishing from her face. Her heart suddenly pounded and she found herself breathing a bit more quickly than normal.

Mitchell walked over quickly. "Sam?"

Sam swallowed away her momentary panic. "I, uh…I can't move."

"You can't move?" Mitchell repeated, started to get really concerned.

Sam frowned. "No, I can't. Except my head," she added, twisting her neck around experimentally.

"Did you hurt your back?" Daniel asked.

Sam considered the matter. "I don't think so. I hurt all over - I can feel my feet and legs and everything. I just can't move."

Mitchell decided to discard his mental list of complaints instead of adding to it. It wasn't helping anymore. He rubbed his forehead as his headache returned in full force.

"Well this isn't good," he commented.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Stranded  
Author: sgtat  
Category: General, Action/Adventure  
Rating: K+ to be safe.  
Season: Nine  
Related Episodes/Spoilers: None.  
Featured Characters: Each team member.  
Pairings: Team.  
Disclaimer: I have no ownership in the Stargate franchise. If I did, I would not be writing fanfiction.

Summary: The new SG-1 is trapped off-world, as the uncreative title suggests, at the mercy of a strange young woman they know nothing about...

"Alright," Mitchell said after a moment, needing to clear his still-pounding head. "Let's have a little re-cap. We came through the Gate to check on the MALP. We found invisible walls. The DHD is missing a crystal. We're locked up and haven't been able to communicate with that girl we met. General Landry's going to check on us in another three hours."

"What?" Sam interrupted. Apparently she'd been unconscious longer than she thought. She was beginning to feel light-headed.

Mitchell nodded and briefly recounted their conversation with the General. "Not much later the girl came, left us some food, pretty much ignored Jackson's attempts at conversation, and left. Jackson, what are you doing?"

Daniel looked up innocently from where he had sat down by the try the woman had left. He held a piece of what looked like bread in his hand.

"I'm checking out the food she brought," he answered in that 'what else could I be doing' tone that used to drive O'Neill nuts.

"It is unwise to ingest unknown substances that have been provided by a potentially hostile alien." Teal'c warned.

"Well, we're going to have to eat something eventually," Daniel countered. "Might as well try it now."

Teal'c inclined his head, conceding the point, and Mitchell decided to let it go as well. Daniel Jackson wasn't a fool, after all.

"Right," he said curtly. He went back to thinking over the events of the last few hours. Apart from being prisoners and the headaches they weren't actually hurt. Except for carter. A quick glance told Mitchell that she was unconscious again. The woman they had met had not harmed them directly, as far as they knew, and she'd brought them food, either on orders or of her own volition, maybe even against orders. Of course, her taking them prisoner could just as well be against orders, but it was also possible that keeping them alive was against the rules. And then there was the matter of Teal'c's radio, when they'd been stripped of everything else. There were too many unknowns. Bottom line: they weren't getting out of there on their own, and the girl was their best shot at communication.

Daniel was trying the food. It wasn't very tasty, but it wasn't bad, either. He tried some of the bread-like substance and some sort of dried fruit. He took a bite of a tuber and spit it out into his hand with a grimace. It was disgusting. Teal'c raised his eyebrow at Daniel's reaction.

Mitchell gave up trying to think. His head was pounding again and his stomach was growling. He joined Daniel and Teal'c by the food. None of it looked fresh; probably standard prisoners' rations. He reached for the tuber but Daniel shook his head and handed him something that looked like jerky.

"This is better," he told the colonel. "Trust me."

Their repast was interrupted by a low rumble, and the room shook slightly. It stopped as quickly as it had begun, but SG-1 remained watchful. Sam didn't wake up.

"What was that?" Daniel asked.

"An earthquake, perhaps," Teal'c suggested calmly.

The room shook again.

"Or not, Mitchell replied.

"Indeed."

"Well it was definitely something," Daniel raised his eyebrows.

The three men finished the meal they had been brought and sat discussing their situation while the room shook slightly at irregular intervals.

"Do you think that girl even understands you?" Mitchell asked Daniel.

"I don't know," he answered quietly. "So far she hasn't given any indication that she understands a word we're saying. People usually at least figure out the whole 'my name, your name' thing, but she doesn't seem to get it."

"Or she could be playing possum," Mitchell observed.

Daniel agreed. "Or that. But right now we have no way of knowing."

Mitchell nodded. "So what do you suggest, Doctor Jackson?"

"Um, well, I guess I suggest that we wait, and continue to try to talk with her. We're not going anywhere anyway."

"So it would seem," Teal'c conceded. He looked away abruptly at a rustling noise. Colonel Carter was awake again.

Sam tried to lift her head but the movement made her head pound even worse than it had before. She put her hand to her forehead and winced.

"Ow."

Sam opened her eyes as realization hit and her breath caught in her throat as she wiggled her toes.

"Sam?"

"Hey Daniel," Sam replied distracted, flexing her fingers and testing her wrists and elbow joints.

"I take it you can move now," Daniel said, kneeling down by her on his side of the wall.

"I guess so." Sam winced again as she moved her legs. She was extremely sore and ached all over, and lying on the hard floor for so long had left her stiff.

"Can you sit up?" Mitchell asked, standing just behind Daniel.

"Maybe. In a minute," Sam answered. Her head was still pounding and she didn't want to push it. She relaxed her limbs again and closed her eyes.

"You okay?" Daniel asked in the gentle tone reserved for her when she was hurt.

Sam nodded slightly, eyes still closed. "Yeah. I just need a minute."

Teal'c watched the exchange with satisfaction. It was good that Colonel Carter could move again. However they had been rendered unconscious must have had an additional adverse effect on her that was now wearing off.

He suddenly felt as though someone was watching them and turned to find the woman from before standing in the doorway. She was watching their interaction with Colonel Carter with wide eyes. She caught Teal'c looking at her and before he could alert the others to her presence, she was gone, shutting the door behind her as silently as she had opened it.

Sam sat up carefully, supporting herself with her hands as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She swallowed back a brief feeling of nausea and managed to ignore her aching muscles long enough to shift her position so that she was leaning against the smooth, grey wall. She put a hand to her head in reaction to the pain caused by the movement and noticed she was sweating. She put her palm to her forehead and thought she was running a bit of a fever. Now that she thought about it, despite having been stripped of all her gear, her vest and her jacket, it felt pretty warm in the room. Another wave of nausea hit and she leaned her head back against the wall, breathing deeply and evenly. When she opened her eyes again she found her teammates watching her, obviously concerned. She smiled faintly.

"I'm okay, guys. Just a little…tired."

Daniel gave her a look. "Tired?"

Sam just shrugged carefully, feeling as though if she moved too much she'd lose control of the equilibrium she'd just restored to her stomach.

Mitchell crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Okay, so why haven't the rest of us felt…tired?"

"Perhaps the means used to disable us are causing Colonel Carter this discomfort," Teal'c spoke up.

"Yeah, but why only her?"

"Perhaps it is the naquada in her blood or the protein marker left by Jolinar."

"Maybe it's the girl," Daniel suggested slowly.

Mitchell frowned. "What do mean?"

"Maybe be she did something to Sam that she didn't do to us. I mean she took Sam's vest and jacket away, right?"

Teal'c stopped walking. "I believe you may be correct, Daniel Jackson."

Mitchell started to nod. "Yeah. Did you see the way she looked at Sam earlier?"

Sam thought about what the guys were saying. "Well, I guess that would explain why she brought you guys food, but not me."

"And it could also explain why you're separated from us," Daniel added as his mind raced to put the pieces together.

"Why I'm what?" Carter asked.

"Oh, um, you're separated from us by one of those invisible walls," Daniel explained quickly, touching the barrier in demonstration.

"Oh." Sam groaned internally. She hated being separated from the guys. It was never a good sign.

"So what's the theory?" Mitchell asked. "Our hostess did something to Sam that's making her…tired, but she didn't bother doing it to us? That doesn't make any sense."

Daniel frowned. "Then Sam's just having a harder time dealing with whatever we were all given because she was a host?"

"That does indeed seem just as likely," Teal'c acknowledged.

"Neither theory has enough evidence to support or debunk it," Sam added, mumbling a little. She cleared her throat and found that it had become sore in the last few minutes. She almost groaned out loud. Darn Jolinar. Darn woman who wouldn't talk to them. Whichever was the cause for her current state, Sam wasn't happy with them. She realized belatedly that she had closed her eyes again. She opened them. The boys were watching her with frowns on their faces. She gave them a tiny smile and let her eyes shut again, drifting off. She was so tired…


	4. Chapter 4

Summary: The new SG-1 is trapped off-world, as the uncreative title suggests, at the mercy of a strange young woman they know nothing about...

By the time their hostess came back Sam was thirsty. She'd been drifting in and out of sleep for ages and was still tired. The fine sheen of sweat covering her face and her light-headedness told her that her fever was worse. She felt weak and energy-less, and waves of nausea continued hitting her. She would probably be more comfortable curled up on her side, but that required moving. She knew the guys were investing in worried glances at her, but she didn't have the energy to reassure them. She didn't even notice the young woman come back into the room until Daniel tried talking to her again.

"My name's Daniel. I'm an archeologist. I study people and cultures and their histories and languages. What do you do?"

The young woman was silent for a moment, then replied, "I work on the ship."

Daniel didn't respond immediately. He had nearly given up on any meaningful communication with the young woman and was just going through the motions. Her answer caught him off guard.

"Oh," he finally managed to get out. "Um, the ship. Right. So are you a scientist or a mechanic . . . ?"

The woman reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out one of SG-1's radios. She pressed the speaker button and Teal'c's radio registered the static.

"This is a communication device," she said, her voice echoing from Teal'c radio. She spoke quietly, her voice slightly rough, as if she'd just woken up.

Mitchell stood up and strode over to Daniel. "Yes, very good. You figured out our radios. Congratulations. Can we go home?"

The woman turned steely eyes on Colonel Mitchell. She pulled out a 9 mil and flipped off the safety.

"And you've figured out our weapons, I see," he added, now concerned.

Daniel moved into the new void and cut to the chase. "So, what are you going to do?"

The woman pointed the gun at Sam. Teal'c quickly stepped between the two women, directly into the line of fire.

"Wait a minute," Mitchell began, and Daniel held up his hands in a motion to stop.

"Easy, easy," he said tensely.

"Why shouldn't I?" The woman asked coldly. "She should be dead by now anyway."

Daniel stared at her. She held the gun steadily; she knew what she was doing. But he thought he saw a glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes.

"At least tell us why you're doing this. Why Colonel Carter?"

The woman looked at him for a moment and lowered the gun, clicking the safety back on. Teal'c relaxed a fraction but did not move. He glanced behind him to ascertain Colonel Carter's condition. Her head was back against the wall again, eyes closed. Teal'c couldn't tell if she was relieved or asleep. He turned back to the others.

"My name is Daniel," Daniel repeated for the third time that day.

"I am Hannah," the woman replied.

"Hannah. That's a nice name." Daniel tried to keep hold of the initiative. It was not to be.

"Why did you come here?"

"We're peaceful explorers from a planet called earth," Daniel recited. "We explore other planets in the hopes of making friends and establishing trade."

"Which your people aren't helping with," Mitchell put in.

The girl stiffened and glared at him before turning back to Daniel.

"What of the device that came before you? Is it yours?"

"Yes," Daniel answered, shooting Mitchell a look. They were finally making some progress, and it was beginning to sound as though perhaps all this was a huge misunderstanding, prompted perhaps by ignorance.

"What does it do?"

Teal'c tilted his head and explained. "It is a machine. It merely determines whether or not an environment is safe for humans."

Hannah glared at Teal'c. "Did I ask you, Jaffa?"

Teal'c blinked and raised his head slightly. "You did not. However I was unaware that you wished me to remain silent. I apologize."

Daniel looked at Hannah nervously. Teal'c sounded a little sarcastic.

Hannah merely narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to Daniel.

"What Goa'uld do you serve?"

Daniel smiled. Finally, a point of reference. But before he could answer a violent tremor hit and the room shook again. Red alarms went off in the hallway and Hannah sprinted from the room, leaving the door open in her haste.

Another tremor hit and Daniel fell against the invisible wall that Hannah had not bothered moving back to the door. Small bits of the ceiling began to fall, filling the room with dust.

"What's going on!?" Mitchell shouted over the noise of the alarms.

Daniel steadied himself and Sam spoke up, her voice hoarse and breathless.

"The building we're in could be experiencing a loss of structural integrity."

"Or we could be under attack," Daniel added.

"I do not hear any sounds of impact," Teal'c disagreed.

The tremors stopped suddenly, leaving the room still and quiet, alarms from the hallway still blaring for a few minutes before they, too, stopped. Mitchell noticed that Hannah had left the door open and they could see out a little. He got as close as he could while Daniel went to check on Sam. She was still sitting leaned up against the wall, brushing dirt and chips of ceiling off herself.

"You okay?"

Sam nodded, coughing a bit from the dust.

"You sure?"

Sam nodded again, flashing him a brief smile. She felt terrible, but she had no new injuries, which she knew Daniel was checking for. A fist-sized piece of ceiling was lying on the floor just a few feet away, but nothing bigger than a finger nail had fallen on her.

Daniel leaned against the barrier separating them. "Are you feeling any better? Do you think you could stand?"

Carter hesitated. She was pretty sure that she could get to her feet if she needed to, but with the waves of nausea still threatening her, she wasn't sure if it was such a good idea. She settled for answering with a curt 'yes', but no moving. Daniel smiled down at her sympathetically.

Mitchell sauntered back from his spot near the door, frowning. "Jackson?"

"Yes?"

"What did that girl Hannah say she does?"

Daniel shared a look with Sam. "She said she works on the ship, why?"

Mitchell nodded. "That's what I thought."

Sam looked over at him. "What is it, Cam?"

"I think we're on it."

"On what?"

"The ship."

Teal'c quirked an eyebrow. "What makes you so certain?"

"Have a look," Mitchell gestured toward the door. Teal'c approached, encountering the barrier. He could see into the hallway. It was gray and nearly voice of character, except for a small window that he could see out of when positioned at the correct angle. Beyond was dark space filled with stars and, not far away, a gas cloud. He looked back at the others gravely.

"I believe Colonel Mitchell to be correct. We are in space."

Sam closed her eyes and groaned mentally. She hated being stranded in space. Really hated it. At least this time she wasn't all alone.

Daniel had to see for himself and came back puzzling it all out. "I suppose it's possible - I mean, we have gated to a ship before, when it was in orbit around a planet. But why would they keep us here instead of transferring us to the planet?"

"It is also possible that we gated to the planet and were then transferred aboard this vessel for transport elsewhere," Teal'c said.

Mitchell didn't like that suggestion.

"It's also possible that we gated to a ship not in orbit around a planet," Sam added, her voice still hoarse. She cleared her throat.

Daniel frowned. "Wouldn't we only be able to gate to a ship at a planet? I mean, the Stargate has to be on a planet or in orbit around one to get a lock, doesn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Sam explained, sitting up a bit straighter. "The ship would need to be stationary, but as long as it's near a planet we could theoretically get a lock. We could have dialed a nearby planet and gotten jumped to this gate because it's so close, -"

"Like what happened to you and General O'Neill when you were sent to the Antarctic Gate," Mitchell put in.

Sam nodded. "Exactly. Or we could be near the planet that originally housed this Gate, like when we gated to Apophis's ship. But we wouldn't have to actually be in orbit."

"So…" Mitchell scratched his head. "Bottom line, we could be in one of about four different situations?"

Daniel looked at Sam and she smiled slightly in confirmation, tired from her speech. She hated being sick - it was so much harder to think clearly.

"Alright," Mitchell sat down, "let's think through the positives and negatives to each, shall we?"


	5. Chapter 5

Daniel twiddled his thumbs back and forth, one eye on the still-open yet inaccessible doorway, utterly bored. Hannah hadn't returned for hours and speculation could only go so far. Mitchell was dozing, propped up against the wall, and Teal'c was attempting to kel-no-reem. Danel sighed. He stopped twiddling his thumbs and went to look outside again. There it was: space, in all its glory. Funny how seldom they actually saw it like this, considering how often they traveled to other planets. It was so ... vast.

Sam mumbled in her sleep, momentarily distracting him. He got as close as he could a took a good look at her. She was breathing shallowly, wheezing a bit, and the hair on her forehead was matted down with sweat. She was looking worse rather than better.

Daniel frowned. He'd spent enough time in dry places to know the dangers of dehydration, and Sam hadn't had anything to drink the entire time they'd been there. She needed fluids if she was going to get better. At least there hadn't been any more tremors.

Daniel turned away, his hands behind his head, and was brought up short by the sight of Hannah. She was moving quietly, as though not to disturb them. She carried another tray of food and some tall ceramic cups, hopefully filled with water. But it was her appearance that caught Daniel's attention. Her face, hands, clothes and even hair were smeared with grease - mechanic, Daniel reminded himself. But there was more than that. Her left hand seemed to be wrapped in a bandage of sorts and she had such a look of utter exhaustion about her that Daniel felt a twinge of unfounded sympathy.

Hannah pressed the wall controls and Daniel heard the now-familiar sound of the barrier shifting. He approached the young woman, who now looked to his eyes very young indeed, as near as he could get.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

Hannah seemed startled by the inquiry.

"I'm fine," she answered, placing the tray on the ground as she had before. She glanced at Sam, but Daniel decided to avoid that topic for a moment.

"Can you tell me what happened earlier? When everything started shaking?"

Hannah gave him a calculated look and shrugged. "The ship was experiencing a hull breach on the lower levels. It happens from time to time."

"Really." Daniel was not comforted by that information. "And that doesn't concern you?"

Hannah just stared at him.

"Okay, um, how about telling me why we've been ignored for so long. Surely your leaders will want to, uh, question us or something."

Daniel frowned as Hannah shook her head.

"I'm the only person you'll be dealing with."

"But that doesn't make sense," he argued. "Why would a mechanic, and apparently a rather busy one, be given the added burden of dealing with prisoners?"

Hannah looked away. "That's just how it is."

"But why?"

Hannah just shook her head and made for the door.

"Wait - wait!" Daniel was surprised when she stopped and turned back to face him again.

"Listen, I know you don't like Sam for some reason, but please. Just bring her some water. She's very ill and she needs to stay hydrated or she's only going to get worse."

Hannah's gaze drifted again to Sam, her eyes unreadable. "She should have been dead hours ago."

"So you said earlier," Daniel acknowledged. "Why?"

Hannah hesitated a moment before answering. "When I took you hostage, a chemical was released into the room you were in. This is why you all fainted. For normal people, it merely stuns them for a time, but it kills such as her. She developed a fever right away so I knew my precaution had been valid, but she was supposed to die quickly."

"Well," Daniel ventured, "she didn't. She's alive."

Hannah nodded as though to herself and Daniel pressed further. "What do you mean by 'such as her'?"

Hannah looked at him. "Don't you even know what she is?"

Daniel got a sinking feeling in his stomach. "I think I know where this is going, but tell me anyway."

"She's one of the Jaffa-gods."

Daniel hung his head. "You think she's a Goa'uld."

Hannah frowned at him. "I know she is. The chemical attacked her system - it still is. She would be immune if she was not one of them."

"That's how you knew Teal'c didn't have a symbiot," Daniel surmised, lifting his head to look at Hannah again. She nodded.

"I have to go now. I haven't finished fixing the hull damage," she said as she moved again toward the door.

"No, wait!" Daniel walked along the barrier with her. "Listen to me. Sam's not a Goa'uld."

Hannah gave him an impatient look and he talked faster.

"I'm assuming you know that the Goa'uld is actually just a parasitic symbiot that takes over hosts, usually human. This is probably what your chemical actually kills. Now it's true that Sam was once host to a symbiot, but it died, leaving her with Naquada in her blood and a protein marker. My guess is the chemical attacks one or both of those things, and that's why it's making her sick, but there's nothing to actually kill."

Hannah gave him a look of disbelief, but Daniel thought he detected some doubt in her eyes.

"Just give her some water," Daniel suggested. "I'm not asking you to let her go, just help her. Please."

Hannah seemed to be sizing him up for a long moment. Her eyes drifted to his left and he turned to see that Teal'c and Cameron were both awake and waiting to see what would happen. By the looks of it, they'd been listening for some time, and he was surprised they hadn't butted in.

Hannah looked once more at Sam. "Fine."

She walked out the door, pressed several buttons on the panel, and left.

The barrier moved audibly again, but the sound seemed to echo behind Daniel. He turned and watched as Cameron carefully approached Sam. He gave the others a relieved smile when he met no resistance.

"Jackson, bring her some water," he directed, kneeling down beside his fellow officer and putting a hand to her damp forehead. She didn't wake, but Jackson had finally been able to reason a little with their captor, and they were no longer separated from Sam. Things were finally looking up.


End file.
